Southwest, Boeing Class Action On Hold While Defendants Appeal Certification

• Who: A Texas judge has put a lawsuit suing Southwest Airlines and Boeing on hold. 
• Why: The defendants seek to appeal certification of the class action with the Fifth Circuit.
• Where: The lawsuit is pending in Texas federal court.

A judge has partly granted a motion from The Boeing Co. and Southwest Airlines Co. seeking to stay a class action lawsuit against the companies while they appeal an order certifying four classes.

U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant’s ruling halts the class certification-related discovery in the case, but other discovery can still proceed.

“For the purpose of issuing a stay pending appeal, a sufficient showing of a substantial case on the merits is met ‘when there is a lack of precedent to clarify the issues at bar,'” the judge said in the order. “The court agrees that the certification order involves presently unsettled questions of

law and thus raises significant legal issues. Therefore, the court finds that defendants have satisfied the exception by presenting a substantial case on the merits.”

Boeing and Southwest claimed they would be “irreparably harmed without a stay because they have no mechanism to recoup the enormous pretrial costs flowing from classes that include millions of plaintiffs and require a large volume of discovery in this case.” However, the plaintiffs said “waiting for the appeal to be resolved could result in the further destruction of highly relevant evidence.”

“Considering the impracticability of predicting how the Fifth Circuit will rule on defendants’ appeal, the court acknowledges the potential irreparable harm defendants may suffer if all proceedings are not stayed,” Judge Mazzant said in the order. “But, when weighed against the potential prejudice to plaintiffs, the court finds a limited stay appropriate in this case. Discovery will be stayed on class membership only, and the case will proceed in all other respects, including merits discovery.”

Class Action Claims Boeing & Southwest’s Max 8 Aircrafts Had ‘Fatal Design Defect’

In a 2019 complaint, ​a group of airline passengers claimed that Boeing and Southwest Airlines conspired to mislead customers into believing that Boeing 737 Max jets were safer than they are, claiming there’s a “fatal design defect” in the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft. 

Allegedly, the planes had sensors that triggered the automated flight control feature that brings the plane’s nose down if the angle of the sensors is too high.

This defect has reportedly been linked to two Boeing 737 Max 8 crashes — the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash that killed 157 people on March 10, 2019, and the Lion Air Flight 610 crash that killed 189 people in October 2018. The Max 8 jets were grounded globally for more than 20 months before getting cleared to fly again in late 2020. 

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The plaintiffs are represented by Yavar Bathaee, David H. Hecht, Andrew J. Lorin, Michael M. Pomerantz, Barron M. Flood and Brian J. Dunne of Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht LLP.

The Southwest Boeing 737 Defect Collusion Class Action Lawsuit is Earl, et al. v. The Boeing Company, et al., Case No. 4:19-cv-00507, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas

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